Nadir
by RoadWild
Summary: !Reincarnation Taylor Taylor woke up the day of her trigger. A long time had past since she had seen Brockton Bay, and a long time had past since she had been in Earth Bet. Unfortunately, her plan to trigger goes awry from the get go.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** Okie while writing Valiance I got this little idea that I couldn't get rid of. It's short but C2 is well on its way (that's a lie but I want to reassure myself). Betaed by the great ProfanityCat

Taylor woke, and laid there for several minutes regaining her bearings. Memories flashed through her mind as she came to grips with her new reality.

Slowly she sat up in the darkened bedroom and blinked as her vision adjusted. She fumbled for her glasses and stared at her hands. Whole. Unscarred.

Taylor rose and stumbled in surprise when she realized she was a little shorter than remembered. She remembered her old insecurities, but dismissed them. That was then, now was her.

Taylor couldn't feel her swarm, but that was given. It was strange being so... mentally disconnected but Taylor rationalized that if her plan had gone through then she would soon be whole once again. She checked the clock and laughed. Two hours before she had to go to school. She supposed she would go running, but suddenly she felt a very strong desire to break the cycle and be free. She wasn't Skitter or Weaver or even Khepri. She was just Taylor, and she was going to change it all.

Taylor walked down to the kitchen and flicked on the light. The wave of nostalgia that hit her was surprising given that technically she had been here last night. She once again checked the calendar and made sure that today was the day she would trigger once more. Assured, Taylor left the house to go on a walk.

She marveled at Brockton Bay. Of course, gang tags littered multiple walls and she could feel the stagnation, but from her memory it was as if the entire place had been refurbished. No water damage, no destroyed buildings, no entirely missing areas. Taylor continued to walk around until the sun had risen and the city began to wake up. She couldn't remember when she would return to her home in the mornings, but she reasoned right now would be as good as ever. Her walk back was uneventful, surprising given the state of Brockton Bay's streets. She could feel hostile glances every now and then but given she had made this particular route many times before she supposed they were familiar with her presence.

She arrived home and took a shower. She fumbled around the unfamiliar bathroom but eventually she exited, feeling far fresher than she did this morning. Taylor dressed quickly, and then went down and froze. Her dad sat at the table. Taylor felt tears in the corner of her eyes, and she rapidly blinked, banishing them. She swallowed, and said "Dad, er- good morning!"

Danny blinked and turned to face her. Taylor felt trepidation. It was as if he could tell she wasn't the Taylor he knew before. That she was a veteran of multiple of parahuman conflicts and a literal war. This was all alleviated when he said "Taylor, you came back pretty late today. Good run?"

Taylor took this exit and said "Yea yea, good run. Eggs?" At his affirmation Taylor became silent and moved to make eggs mostly from muscle memory. She made it through the rest of the morning with incident and Taylor walked to school.

Winslow. God damn. It's been such a long while since Taylor thought of this place. It was as much as a dump as it was in her memories, and Taylor didn't exactly have good memories. _I can't believe I chose this over Arcadia._

Taylor walked through the crowds and she braced herself. Her memories of her trigger were very detailed, but with the time that had past she couldn't remember every single detail. She walked to her locker and tried to remember what her combination was. _Shit._ Taylor pulled on the lock and was surprised when it just snapped off. Then, her locker opened, and Taylor felt ill. She rarely had nightmares, but when she did it was either of Scion or this moment.

A rough hand slammed her into the locker door, and Taylor was dazed as she heard high pitched laughter. Taylor was dizzy as she was pushed into the locker, and when it locked shut behind her Taylor clenched her eyes in frustration. Doing it over again but she was still helpless against this. Given that this was her trigger it made sense she would still be vulnerable, but Taylor was annoyed at how-_Oh god this is disgusting Jesus Christ I spent hours in this?_

Taylor began kicking at the door and yelling with all her might, but she stopped when she realized it increased the chances of something going inside her mouth. She continued kicking, but she realized that she wouldn't be let out until hours later. How history repeated itself, she did not know. She began to freak out.

Far away, in a different dimension entirely, the shard named Queen Administrator flared to life. It felt it's connection to its current host fluctuate, as if it were being called upon. Odd. It could not remember ever bonding. It went back to hibernation, and all was still.

When Taylor was finally let out of the locker by a surprised janitor, she sat up in the filth and yelled one thing to the skies. "What the shit! Where's my powers!"


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** WORK BABY WORK-Thanks for reading; the final paragraph of this chapter took 3 weeks to write. I'm a very efficient writer!

Taylor sulked in the nurse's office while the aging woman fussed over her. She stubbornly refused to look up while alcohol wipes were dabbed on her skin. Over and over she tried to reach out to her swarm but every time nothing replied. She felt betrayed, as if her passenger had moved thought bitterly to herself _There's no way it already bonded with a new host dammit!_

Taylor brushed off the nurse's concerned fussing and asked "Is there anything else I need to do? Can I go now?"

The nurse was outraged and hissed "You were trapped in that locker for how long? Don't think you can just get away young lady!"

Taylor waited until the nurse's back was turned, and then she quietly walked out. Her body was unfamiliar to her, but she could still call on some of her old tricks. She walked down Winslow's winding hallway and headed to the front gates. Her nose crinkled as she passed the janitor still cleaning the remains of her locker.

When Taylor got home, she ruminated on why she hadn't triggered. Well, first she had taken a _long_ shower, then she began to analyze. There was no reason why she hadn't been able to trigger. Her trigger was almost identical to what she remembered. Then she realized.

After fighting Lung, the Endbringers, Scion, every little thing that happened between her first night out and coming up with a plan to come back, this really wasn't the worst thing to happen to her. Not by a long shot. Unless something managed to trump the trauma the Slaughterhouse managed then she would never trigger.

At that realization Taylor slumped onto her bed. She-she didn't know what to do. Every plan she had made hinged on her being able to quickly trigger after coming back, yet now every scrap of work had gone to waste. Reconnaissance, experimentation, every facet was in some way shaped by her power, and Taylor didn't know how to do without.

Somewhere, in a small neighborhood situated in a quiet city, small whimpers began to sound.

* * *

Taylor woke the next day wishing she hadn't woken up. She regretted coming back. Maybe if she hadn't, her old self could have done it all again and fight Scion. But with her here, with no powers to speak of, Taylor had well and truly ended the world. She couldn't bare it. When her father began knocking gently on her door, gradually growing in frequency and force Taylor had flipped over on her bed, letting out a loud groan. There was a muffled "Are you okay?", and Taylor repeated her past action.

Danny had no idea what was wrong with her, but if she was _that_ sick then he supposed a few days off school couldn't hurt. Granted it was the first week back from winter break but being lenient just this once couldn't hurt.

Taylor continued to lie on her bed, seemingly lifeless, save for when she felt she needed to go to the bathroom or satisfy some other physical need. She was trying to remember her old team's faces, trying to remember the times she would never have now.

Abruptly, Taylor sat up. She suddenly felt livid with herself, disgusted she would defeat herself so easily. If Emma and Sophia's combined efforts couldn't break her, then why would she do the job for them? Taylor's reminiscing made on thing clear to her. It didn't matter who she was facing, whether it be Coil or the damn Slaughterhouse, Taylor would be proactive. Laying around crying about times that would never happen again would solve nothing. Nothing at all. She hazily recalled her memories of old Brockton Bay. Her only resource now was her knowledge, and she still will change it for the better.

* * *

Taylor stood at the bus stop, not entirely sure of what she would do. Before nodding off last night she had drawn up a small diagram of what she could remember, from small nuances to major events. Decidedly she had crossed out any events that directly factored in her powers which had given her pause this morning. She realized that should she not step in, it was very like that her old team the Undersiders would be heavily injured, or even killed, when Lung went hunting for their heads. She-she couldn't let that happen. Yet even the first time with her powers was an utter crapshoot, only luck and sheer numbers winning the battle. Now unpowered, anything approaching going near a block's radius of Lung was pure suicide. Not only that, but there were far bigger issues that she would have to deal with. Leviathan's rampage, the Slaughterhouse Nine coming back to Brockton Bay, the Teeth paying a visit. In her half sleep deprived state, Taylor almost didn't notice the light flickering across her face. But when she looked up, she saw a Doorway into a white room.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** Wow uh, reading through this I realized I had a pretty solid foundation. Better than Valiance anyways. Taylor's in for a looong run

Taylor was shocked that Cauldron was bold enough to so carelessly open a portal in the open. She furtively glanced around for any bystanders or loiterers but was surprised when she saw none. Nobody at this time of night? Not even a lone jogger, or even gang members? Highly improbable. Some could even say that it was unlikely. Taylor hadn't lived this-well, really, lived so long to take coincidence for granted. Either Cauldron had a deeper bag of tricks than anybody had suspected, or some other player connected to Cauldron had a hand in this. Her head twitched as she thought of Coil and other factions in Brockton Bay which had dealings with Cauldron in some way or another. It could be any one of them, hell it could be a loosely coordinated effort. But for now, all that mattered was that a Door was in front of Taylor, beckoning her to enter. She braced herself. She stepped through.

The room was not the clinically clean that Taylor had encountered in the past, but nor was it a cluttered mess. Somebody had gone through great lengths to specifically tailor the room for her, and it irked Taylor that even now Contessa held a hand in events. Her attention was grabbed by the primly dressed non-descript woman standing in the middle of the room. Her eyes were glazed over, and her posture revealed even more exhaustion than what was visible. The woman straightened up and said, "You aren't supposed to be here."

Taylor stopped herself from giving any non-verbal confirmation and waited to hear what else the woman had to say. If that was all they knew then she had no further business here. After a short pause, the woman rolled her eyes and said "Why did you come back?"

Finally, a question. Taylor glanced around the room and resisted the automatic reflex to scan it using her bugs. _Can't do that now. Can't do that again._ She had pondered on similarly worded questions before. Her answer was again almost instinctive. She raised her voice and said, "To do it again. To do it again _better_."

The woman tilted her head, and after seemingly thinking it over she nodded and said, "What do you mean by better?"

Taylor ignored the pang in her heart, and said, "Stopping _him_ from killing hundreds of billions."

Stopping herself from becoming Khepri.

Annoyed, Taylor looked around the room and said "Look. Are you going to stop listening in and finally let us talk, face to face? Talking through a medium is getting boring."

There was a pause. The woman was now obviously listening to somebody through some medium and was nodding along with whatever points were being made. Finally, she said "Please, follow me."

A Door opened, and the woman went through. Taylor followed, and was unsurprised by what she saw. Yet another clean, white room, neatly decorated and a small table in the middle. Taylor saw that now Cauldron was becoming serious, allowing somebody as important as Doctor Mother meet a potentially volatile unknown. Doctor Mother was already sitting down, beckoning Taylor to similarly do the same. When Taylor complied, Doctor Mother remarked, "We are all very interested in what exactly transpired several days ago. We were all very... surprised when several of our long-standing plans underwent minimal to drastic changes, often deviating from the plan's original purpose. I take it you are not Taylor Hebert?"

Said Taylor Hebert smiled tiredly at Doctor Mother, and said "You know, I think this might be the first time when I have had to formally introduce myself. I am Taylor Hebert. Just from a faraway future."

The revelation was received with very little reaction from Doctor Mother, who seemed to have expected it all along. She simply raised her eyebrow, and asked "Oh? Was our Recursion program successful in the future?"

Taylor shook her head and said "No, never heard of such a thing. I don't think Cauldron was even functional when I started to prepare to turn back the clock. No, just gratuitous application of Tinkertech and research. "

Doctor Mother let out a small frown, but continued on, asking "Zion went on his rampage when predicted?"

At that, Taylor let out a small sigh. "Don't know. Was 2013 your guys' prediction?"

Doctor Mother sombrely shook her head and said "Nowhere close. Obviously, we won since you're here, but how badly did we win?"

Taylor pursed her lips. "The statistics doesn't matter at this point. Not going to happen at this point. At least now I know what the points of failure are. "

Doctor Mother nodded and asked "Cauldron has many resources and assets available. If you align yourself with us, we can offer you assistance."

At that, Taylor snorted. "Yea, no thank you. I know I did some questionable things nearer to the end, and so did you guys. But now's another chance. Just one thing. Let the Fairy Queen kill the Slaughterhouse. At the very least Jack Slash. The Broadcaster was the reason why Zion began to kill everyone."

Taylor made to stand up, but Doctor Mother raised her hand in a placating gesture. "That can be arranged. But just one last question. Does Project Terminus ever succeed? Making good examples of parahuman leadership?"

Taylor thought back to all the turmoil and panic caused by the reveal of Cauldron, and the subsequent riots and attacks. Her mind was captured by Alexandria casually allowing an S-Class threat to rampage in Brockton Bay just so they could potentially get copies of powers. And yet, her mind drifted to Legend directing anti-Endbringer efforts. The countless sacrifices made. The world changing. She looked Doctor Mother in the eyes. "It worked for me. I'd say I'm only one person, but I'm the only person that would know, wouldn't I?"

The woman was silent, and Taylor saw a Door open in front of her.

* * *

When Taylor returned to Brockton Bay, she was motionless for some time. Her mind was inundated with questions about Cauldron and their actions, and whether or not she should have returned to this time. She was essentially spitting on everyone's sacrifice by reverting it all. She walked slowly to her home. She wouldn't be sleeping tonight.


End file.
